ROCKWALL  Cathy Samford, a volleyball coach and science teacher, was fired from Heritage Christian Academy for getting pregnant and not being married, the school acknowledged.

"I looked it up and thought, 'They can't do this,'" said Samford, 29.

For almost three years, she coached volleyball at the private school. Samford was named "Coach of the Year" and recently began teaching science.

But when she got pregnant last fall, the school fired her because she was not married.

"We all have different views and interpretations," Samford said. "It's not necessarily the Christian thing to do to throw somebody aside because of those."

"You can't discriminate against someone who's pregnant or has a pregnancy-related medical condition," said Colin Walsh, her attorney. "That is both state and federal law."

But Heritage Christian said this case is not so simple.

"I understand some people that would say 'It's a heartless thing to do,'" said the school's headmaster, Dr. Ron Taylor. "It wasn't easy to do."

Taylor acknowledged that Samford could not get fired for an out-of-wedlock pregnancy in a public school. But HCA is a private, religious campus, and Taylor said the school considers teachers to be ministers, since they're allowed to share their beliefs in the classroom.

"The Supreme Court, as a matter of fact in the last month, has ruled 9-to-0 that a Christian school does have that right, because this is a ministry, so we have the right to have standards of conduct," Taylor added.

Taylor said Samford violated the morals clause in her contract and was not a "Christian role model" to her students.

"How's it going to look to a little fourth grade girl that sees she's pregnant and she's not married?" Taylor asked.

Mediation did not result in a resolution between the two parties. The school said it also refused to settle the case.

Taylor said HCA was contacted by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding the firing.

Samford and Walsh said they're now considering legal action. The fired teacher and expectant mother said she did nothing wrong, and faces financial problems now, including giving birth without insurance.

She signed a contract that probably had clear rules of behavior. My wife works at a private school and has a contract that has things like no drinking, no smoking, etc. There is no mystery, it is just a matter of honoring your word in the contract you agreed to.

Im a Christian and I dont believe this is right. Christians beat their chest about abortion and contraception and then ostracize women who become pregnant out of wedlock. So much for loving the mother and child... And I doubt the fourth grader is going to know or care that she was or wasnt married.

I have no problem with them firing her but they should have kept her on until she had the baby so it was covered under insurance. Now the school will appear heartless.

Taylor said Samford violated the morals clause in her contract and was not a "Christian role model" to her students

This is a Christian school, and every school has a handbook that is handed out every year, to teachers. Among the many requirements is a "Morality Clause". This means, no drunken orgies, no drug use, don't molest students at home, do not be seen by students going into local bars, drinking in public, swearing in public - and many other items.

She knew she was in violation of the school policy - now seems shocked to see that the policy is being enforced. There are other schools with lower standards out there; but is seems pretty hypocritical to tell young teenage girls not to have sex, or to use birth control - then have an unwed and pregnant teacher as a role model.

14
posted on 04/11/2012 9:57:21 AM PDT
by Hodar
( Who needs laws; when this FEELS so right?)

I think the key word here is “Christian”.I suspect that Heritage *Jewish* Academy would have fired her for having eaten pork and Heritage *Moslem* Academy would have beheaded her for showing her face in public.

19
posted on 04/11/2012 9:57:56 AM PDT
by Gay State Conservative
(Jimmy Carter Is No Longer The Worst President To Have Served In My Lifetime.)

Another example where someone who doesn’t follow the rules, wants everyone else to break theirs so she doesn’t have to take responsibility.
She had the choice to not have sex while being unmarried and knew she had a chance to get pregnant and lose her job. She loses.
Go find baby daddy to get your hospital bill and pre natel care along with child support. Instead she chooses to do it with a lawsuit so we all pay.

You are way off. The school has an obligation and a privilege to provide the students with walking talking examples of “practicing what they preach”. Her job is not charity! She is obviously a walking contradiction and the children should not be exposed to her or her fouled witness.

Scripturally, love does not mean "getting to break the rules and the laws of God without any consequences." It really doesn't. You can look it up, if you want to.

Further, letting her go from employment does not equal "she's going to have to go get an abortion." It means that she broke her contract and set a bad example for the kids, and the school exercised it's 1st amendment right to determine its own composition.

As with other times when stories like this get posted and the predictable cries of feigned horror are vomited up onto the thread, I strongly suspect that what really offends a lot of folks is not that this woman was fired, but that the school would actually have the audacity to enforce moral standards - standards which a lot of even professing Christians find themselves not wanting to have to abide.

The school has a right to their policy for teachers which I’m sure she was aware of. They could have quietly removed her from the teaching position and put her in another job. If I were the administrator and it fell within policy, that’s what I’d have done (along with doing my best to leave the media out of it).

Correct. But, contract or not, watch her attorney essentially argue that she couldn't help spreading her legs open for the inseminator and it is unfair to terminate her and let him get away with it just for following the call of nature.

BTW, if she doesn't want to keep the baby, there are a ton of place who will pay for all prenatal, birth and post natal care in return for the rights to adopt the child into a two parent home. My niece was fortunate to be so adopted and my sister and BIL paid all expenses.

39
posted on 04/11/2012 10:13:31 AM PDT
by Vigilanteman
(Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)

>>Christians beat their chest about abortion and contraception and then ostracize women who become pregnant out of wedlock.<<

Please explain what one thing has to do with the other. You can make your own decision about premarital sex, but the church (and this school) has made it pretty clear that its not a good example of Christian behavior. If you’re going to work for such a church or school, you follow their teaching.

There’s no ostracism. This was an employment contract where one party breached their duty of performance.

“Hey now. Just because Tsgt made an ignorant reply is no reason for you do do the same.”

I take the lesson of the woman taken in adultery to heart.

I see Catholics doing a better job handling this kind of problem than most denominations, offering spiritual council and support, prenatal care and often adoption assistance. That is the proper mix, IMO. Correction, example and support. Otherwise we are just Moslems who eat bacon.

42
posted on 04/11/2012 10:15:43 AM PDT
by Psalm 144
("I'm not willing to light my hair on fire to try and get support. I am who I am." - Willard M Romney)

There’s a difference between ostracizing someone and declining to use her as a moral example for one’s children.

As a matter of fact, these things do influence our children. When my daughter was 8 her teacher got pregnant and had a baby out of wedlock. Everyone in the public school was “supportive” and “nonjudgmental.” Trouble is, the children in her class then got the idea that it was fine and normal for women to have babies without a husband. Yes, they do notice, they do look up to their teachers, they do get impressed, they are influenced. And that daily message—that it’s okay to get pregnant and have a baby without a husband—outweighs the disapproving messages their parents try to give them after school.

Yeah, why would the “Academy” hire a non Christian? Im pretty sure I read somewhere that “fornication”, “sexual relations outside of wedlock”, and promiscuity are all examples of what Christians dont want to be. I wish she (if she is a Christian) would realize that her employment is really the least of her worries.

My daughter was teaching Kindergarten in an inner city Houston school in the 1980s when she was suddenly called into the Principal’s office during school hours. Her BF was there with a ring and a large bouquet of roses. He proposed and she accepted.

Back to class, her kindergarteners wanted to know why she left. “I’m engaged to be married,” she answered and showed them the ring. “Iz yuh gohnto hava BABY?” was the response from one and all.

These kids had never heard of anyone getting married who wasn’t pregnant. And one boy (who was particularly large for his age) was really bummed. He claimed that she’d promised to marry HIM.

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